The Iron-Orc Warlord didn't roar. He laughed—a sound like grinding boulders. He swung his warhammer, the golden mana trailing behind it like a comet's tail.
"You think a few stacks of blood-lust make you a King?" the Warlord sneered. "I've held this Keep for three centuries! I've eaten a thousand 'Rangers' like you!"
The hammer slammed into the obsidian floor.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: EARTH-SHATTER (RANK 3 PEAK)]
The ground erupted in a wave of jagged iron spikes. Kane didn't dodge. He used Void-Step, appearing mid-air above the Warlord's head.
"I'm not like the others," Kane rasped. "I'm the one who ends the cycle."
The Twin Fangs descended.
CLANG.
The Warlord blocked with the haft of his hammer, but Kane's 140 Strength was a physical catastrophe. The Warlord's knees buckled, the obsidian altar beneath him cracking into a spiderweb of fissures.
[BLOOD-LUST DRAIN: 10 SECONDS REMAINING]
Kane knew he was on a clock. Once the Berserker state faded, the backlash would leave him vulnerable. He let go of the left axe, letting it hang by its soul-tether, and grabbed the Warlord's golden throat with his scaled hand.
"Sully! Get Vance clear!" Kane roared.
Sully, seeing her opening, shattered her mana-cuffs against the edge of the altar and lunged for Vance's chains.
The Warlord surged upward, his gold-plated armor glowing with a blinding radiance. "GET OFF ME, MOON-STAYER!"
He headbutted Kane, the impact cracking Kane's obsidian facial scales. Kane stumbled back, coughing up silver-tinted blood. The Warlord raised his hammer for a final, crushing blow.
[BLOOD-LUST: 0 SECONDS. BERSERKER STATE ENDED.]
[WARNING: VITALITY CRITICAL — 15%]
The hammer came down.
Kane didn't move. He closed his eyes and whispered a single command to the Manual: "Overdrive Harvest."
The Twin Fangs didn't swing. They imploded.
The obsidian blades shattered into a thousand needles of black glass, swarming the Warlord like a hive of hornets. They didn't cut his skin; they bypassed his armor and dove straight into his pores, seeking his mana-veins.
The Warlord froze mid-swing. His golden aura didn't fade—it was sucked inward. He began to wither, his massive frame shrinking as the needles returned to Kane's hands, reforming into the axes, now dripping with liquid gold.
[BOSS DEFEATED: IRON-ORC WARLORD (RANK 3 PEAK)]
[HEART-CORE EXTRACTED: GOLD-TIER]
Kane stood over the shriveled remains of the Warlord. In his hand sat a pulsing, golden orb the size of a grapefruit. It hummed with the power of three hundred years of conquest.
Kane's spine screamed. [CONSUME! RANK 3 PEAK REACHED INSTANTLY!]
He looked at the core. Then he looked at Vance, who was pale, bleeding, and barely clinging to Rank 1.
"Sarge... take it," Vance wheezed. "You need... to get us out..."
"Shut up, Vance," Kane said, his voice cracking.
He walked to the altar and slammed the Golden Core into Vance's chest.
[WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED ESSENCE TRANSFER]
[PROCEDURE INITIALIZED: FORCE-EVOLUTION]
"AAAAAAGH!" Vance's body arched. His skin didn't turn to obsidian like Kane's. It turned to Iron. His muscles expanded, his bones thickening into high-density carbon-steel.
[VANCE EVOLUTION COMPLETE]
[NEW RANK: 3 (MIDDLE STAGE) — THE IRON JUGGERNAUT]
The Keep began to tremble. Without the Warlord's mana to hold the scrap-metal together, the fortress was becoming a tomb.
"Sully, grab Doc's location from the Shaman's maps!" Kane commanded, leaning on his axes for support. He was exhausted, his Rank 2 power flickering, but his eyes were clear.
Vance stood up, snapping his remaining chains like they were made of wet paper. He looked at his hands—now dull, indestructible grey metal. "Sarge... why?"
"Because," Kane said, looking toward the exit as the first Orc reinforcements began to scream in the hallway. "I can't carry the whole world on my back. I need a shield."
Kane looked at the "System" prompt flickering in his vision.
[NEW SQUAD ATTRIBUTE UNLOCKED: THE VOID-RANGERS]
[SQUAD COHESION: 15%]
[CURRENT MISSION: LOCATE 'THE MEDIC' (DOC) — LOCATION: THE PLAGUE-FENS]
"Let's go," Kane growled, the Twin Fangs humming a new, golden-edged tune. "We've got a doctor to find."